[Visual Enhancements] -video d3d raster.ini (HLSL)

[B2K24]

On 7/9/2018 at 9:03 AM, stigzler said:

screenshots or it didn't happen. :p

 

Here ya go

https://imgur.com/a/GONCRze

[stigzler]

funky - looks super authentic

[stigzler]

9 hours ago, tthurman said:

There is simply no comparison.  The minute the leaderboard came up it was decisively better.

The motion blur effects don't stand out as dramatically in the game as it does in these caps, but it looks phenomenal!

Without:

 

With:

 

I'm playing this on MAME 0.196 on my workstation, as that's what I've been testing with lately. 

 

What a game changer!

Doesn't seem to be breaking a sweat either, Average speed remains 100% throughout even with a CPU and GPU slot folding (although I know they got throttled back).

 

I can't wait to play this on my rig with the proper controller!

 

Just wow. I wish there was a way to 'favourite' on these forums as I know I'm going to have to come back to this a few months down the line, but also that I'll have no idea where it is!

[Draco1962]

You can always request that this thread be "pinned" and also moved to the FAQs, Guides & Other Useful Information subforum, assuming @B2K24 is OK with it being pinned/moved there. It can at least be pinned within the current subforum at the very least.

[tthurman]

12 hours ago, Draco1962 said:

You can always request that this thread be "pinned" and also moved to the FAQs, Guides & Other Useful Information subforum, assuming @B2K24 is OK with it being pinned/moved there. It can at least be pinned within the current subforum at the very least.

 

That's a good idea! 

 

Such a small amount of effort for such large returns. 

FWIW I'm simply ALT > PrtScrn for these shots (which are being displayed on a Hanns G circa 2008 22" LED) so certainly nothing special.

 

If B2K24 is for it, I'll sticky it in the other FAQ, Guides & useful information subforum per Draco's suggestion. 

 

[B2K24]

40 minutes ago, tthurman said:

 

That's a good idea! 

 

Such a small amount of effort for such large returns. 

FWIW I'm simply ALT > PrtScrn for these shots (which are being displayed on a Hanns G circa 2008 22" LED) so certainly nothing special.

 

If B2K24 is for it, I'll sticky it in the other FAQ, Guides & useful information subforum per Draco's suggestion. 

 

Sounds great. Thanks!

[tthurman]

I edited the topic in hopes to clarify what it is for those not familiar with the API.  Please edit it if you prefer a different description.

[Draco1962]

I made the change in my mame.ini to enable the Direct3D HLSL and I have to say that both the raster and vector changes look absolutely beautiful and very close to my recall. And this is on a 40 inch Samsung LCD. 

[B2K24]

I decided to tweak further and I'm really liking the improvements made. If you guys can tell me if this one is better, I'll consider it a worthy upgrade

raster.zip

[tthurman]

I added it to my original Joust 2 shots.

It's a bit of a tough call for me.  On one account I like that the new version gives the yellow text a bit more "punch", but at the same time, it has sharpened the image in such a way that the pixels are sharply defined.  This sort of takes away that CRT softness and brings back a bit of the LCD look to me.  

It is just a single title though.

 

<edit> look at "survival of the fittest" and you'll almost see a pattern in it.  This was more pronounced on the monitor than the screen cap, I thought anyway.

[tthurman]

On this title, I prefer the new raster.

 

Previous:

 

New:

[tthurman]

Starting to see a trend here.  The new version highlights the darker areas, where the original raster has a tendency to crush the blacks.   This is particularly noticeable in the shadow details.

Previous:

 

New:

[B2K24]

Thanks for testing it @tthurman  

 

[Draco1962]

@B2K24 - Is there a definitions document or could you create a general document that would guide the end-user on how to adjust certain attributes in the HLSL Raster and Vector ini files? I am sure as more begin to explore these options and desire to customize them that such documentation would come in handy.

[stigzler]

Bit off topic - can you adjust all these setting in the mame GUI? If not, this system is gagging to a GUI.

[B2K24]

2 hours ago, Draco1962 said:

@B2K24 - Is there a definitions document or could you create a general document that would guide the end-user on how to adjust certain attributes in the HLSL Raster and Vector ini files? I am sure as more begin to explore these options and desire to customize them that such documentation would come in handy.

There's none that I know of but I'll try and find/create something.

[B2K24]

19 minutes ago, stigzler said:

Bit off topic - can you adjust all these setting in the mame GUI? If not, this system is gagging to a GUI.

You can TAB/Slider Controls and make adjustments but beware that anything you change doesn't get saved when you exit MAME. You'd have to write them down or remember them and apply them to the raster.ini

[Draco1962]

Commando with latest raster changes applied. Looks purdy darned spiff!

[Draco1962]

Asteroids Deluxe with vector changes applied. Old had bright points at the vertices of where lines met. No longer.

[tthurman]

4 hours ago, stigzler said:

Bit off topic - can you adjust all these setting in the mame GUI? If not, this system is gagging to a GUI. 

Your next project stigz? 

Those bezels look sweet Draco!

 

[Draco1962]

I can't lay claim to the bezels - I have a mix done by Krakerman, Metalzoic, John Merrit and others. But they do look pretty fly on a large screen, eh?

 

[B2K24]

19 hours ago, tthurman said:

I added it to my original Joust 2 shots.

It's a bit of a tough call for me.  On one account I like that the new version gives the yellow text a bit more "punch", but at the same time, it has sharpened the image in such a way that the pixels are sharply defined.  This sort of takes away that CRT softness and brings back a bit of the LCD look to me.  

It is just a single title though.

 

It seems like to me that a lot of the Arcade games I've laid eyes on were incredibly sharp if the monitor was calibrated correctly. I believe there's an over exaggeration these days on the blurriness or out of focus settings where they're super inflated when it's an inaccurate representation of the real thing. I mean, I could be wrong, but I just don't remember it to be that way regardless if my nose was pressed to the display or I was 10 feet back.

 

Anyway, one advantage of running BGFX is it allows you to cycle through effects in real-time while MAME is running through it's menu.

You just TAB into the Sliders menu and then you look for Window 0, Screen 0 Effect (or something like that) you then use the left and right arrows on keyboard (by default unless you've remapped them) and you can toggle different effects.

 

The crt-geom and crt-geom-deluxe is also pretty good. I've modified those and renamed them while keeping the originals in place so you can cycle through those along with the modified hlsl as well depending on the look you desire to see at the particular time.

 

The only downside to BGFX is it doesn't do vector stuff or the handheld systems in the preset folder like gameboy, GBC, GBA, etc. you'll want to use -video d3d for that which you can insert into those ini files if needed.

 

Anyway, for those wanting to run with -video bgfx you can extract the attached zip on this post to MAME\bgfx\chains then cycle through the different effects while MAME is running

chains.zip

[tthurman]

I'm not sure I'm following this one.  I've tried it but can't seem to locate the sliders.

Does this work in conjunction with the raster and vector ini's or is this an entirely separate monster?

Thanks!

 

[B2K24]

Sorry for the confusion.

This is a different system. You have to run -video bgfx   instead of -video d3d

 

There's a section in the mame.ini as well which I have like this

Then when you have MAME running with bgfx video you can access sliders and change the effects in real-time

 

# BGFX POST-PROCESSING OPTIONS
#
bgfx_path                 bgfx
bgfx_backend              auto
bgfx_debug                0
bgfx_screen_chains        hlsl
bgfx_shadow_mask          slot-mask.png
bgfx_avi_name             auto

 

To make MAME use d3d for the raster and vector stuff just add this line to the top of those specific ini files

video                     d3d

 

[tthurman]

Thanks for the clarification, I'm a newbie on these visual fronts and really appreciate the guidance.

I'll give this a go as soon as time allows and see how it shakes out compared to what I've already seen.

 

Thank you!